Lots of books to go over this week, and quite a few rants too. As a whole, I'd have to say that it was a good week for the comic books that I read, being pretty much anchored by the excellent Batman and Robin #4, featuring the Red Hood. More on that later though.

• Action Comics #881:I long for the days that Geoff Johns was writing solid Superman stories in Action Comics. I know that he had a hand in planning out this mess of a crossover, but with his writing and Gary Frank's art, the story might have stood out more. Robinson and Rucka aren't doing much with any of this, and what started as a neat concept with Nightwing and Flamebird (and Mon-El over in Superman) has quickly turned into a storyline that is no longer exciting and seems like it's going to drag out until Superman #700.

  The only good thing that has come from this storyline has been Sterling Gates writing on Supergirl. Even a great villain like General Zod has been wasted in Superman: World of New Krypton.

  Maybe it's just me though, as I was very surprised to find praise for this storyline on the DC Comics message boards.

  In this issue, Supergirl and Flamebird duke it out over Supergirl's dad's death, while Nightwing gets in the middle. Nothing else really goes on to further the story. I really feel like they just picked an end issue (Superman #700) and have been stretching issues out to fill in the gaps.

• Batman and Robin #4: Please Grant Morrison. Please. Please let this Red Hood be Jason Todd. If this is the case, then this is the absolute best portrayal possible of the former Robin. This is who he shoud be - a disgruntled anti-hero taking it to crime with a chip on his shoulder; somebody who thinks he can fight crime better than Batman, especially now that Dick Grayson is Batman. This would set up a great "sibling" rivalry.

  This issue was the best so far, it really got into the psychology of the Red Hood. The interaction between Batman and Robin (Damian Wayne) was also great, with Damian showing Dick that he can fight blind if necessary.

• Blackest Night #3: I had two problems with this issue. The first was the "dropping in" of the Indigo Tribe - pretty much out of nowhere - to save the Atom (Ray Palmer) and explain the origins of the spectrum of light - whisking away Hal Jordan in the process. The second was Johns introducing the unrequited future plans of Gem with Jason (Firestorm) in order to play on that emotion later in the issue. It was too quick a setup.

  Unfortunately for Johns, those were really the only two non-space zombie portions of the story - so the rest was the same as usual.

• Captain America: Reborn #3: I still don't know why this had to be in a separate mini-series, and although I think Ed Brubaker was a little too influenced by Desmond from Lost, this has been a pretty good mini-series. The best part of this issue was how perfectly Brubaker wrote Ant-Man. He really took care to instill the same characterization that Robert Kirkman did. I really miss Kirkman's Ant-Man series.

• Dark Avengers #9: I'm back to reading Dark Avengers after dropping it for the Dark X-Men story. This was a nice standalone issue to show that Ares isn't a complete dick. It really seemed to be a precursor to the inevitable implosion of the Dark Avengers.

• Mighty Avengers #29: I absolutely hate this lineup. Hank Pym is great, but the Wasp costume is ridiculous. Jocasta, Amadeus, Stature and U.S. Agent are pointless additions. I prefer the old Vision. And I'm not much of a Hercules fan. With that said, I think this book is very underrated. I've always enjoyed Christos Gage's Wildstorm work, and Dan Slott has done a nice job from the beginning. Get this book better characters and it might even top New Avengers. There. I said it.

• Thor Annual #1: Since Thor seems to be constantly late, we'll have to make due with an annual. This was pretty good for annual standards, as the story plays off of the current storyline, and we get to see Thor battle some gods and creatures from a different pantheon. Nothing beats the regular title though, so JMS better get on the ball.

• Vengeance of the Moon Knight #1: Moon Knight is my favorite Marvel character, so I was overjoyed when Charlie Huston began writing great stories that propelled Moon Knight to the top of the Marvel U. Then Mike Benson took over and ran it into the ground. He wasn't helped by the crappy art either.

  I was skeptical about this title. I want it to go back to the Charlie Huston feel; and although we don't get that, Gregg Hurwitz writes a very good story that quickly wipes away the Moon Knight crescent mutilations, and re-establishes Marc Spector back into his costume. It also has a kick-ass cliffhanger. I have high hopes again.

  The one drawback was the art. Although the pencils were clean, the inking was poor (non-existent really), and the colors weren't very good. This led to a grainy feel that reminded me too much of Benson's aforementioned run. Hopefully the art will pick up to match the strong story.

There you have it. Quite a big week. I'm interested to know any of your thoughts on the overarching Superman storyline, so if you're a fan, drop me a line in the comments.